If things are fair and the makers of the movie have some influence(the way Aamir Khan had to get lagaan in as an MPAA nominee) this movie...Thavamai Thavamirundhu is heading for a best foriegn film MPAA nomination for the oscar(I am not refering to India as a country nominating movies....I mean the real thing...MPAA).
I dont want to take the suspense out of you by telling you the story of the movie. The style is naratory, it is a flashback by a Son on his dad’s deathbed. Unlike most Indian movie, this movie is devoid of needless hyperbole. The aging and the dating of the movie (1971 to 2005) is near perfect. It may not have the perfection of Charulata(very very few movies world over do).
I saw Cheran’s previous movie Autograph, I came back half happy half disapointed, the later handling became masala. However in this movie the director has improved leaps and bounds and produced a performance rarely seen on the Indian(and Tamil) screen.
To Summarize
Excellent cinematography
No out of context songs...they are set in the background
Very appropriate background music (a la Satyajit Ray)
Very unlike Indian movies a death scene in the middle of the movie is handled
very well
The movie is more subtle and less explicit(devoid of needless hyperbole)
The dating of the movie corresponds very realistically to events at the times
The aging makeup of the charecters is superb
Overall a lot of hard work has gone into making this movie, making it very unlike most Indian movies....
Go see the movie and enjoy......
Finally a tiny protest. Can people stop using the word regional for non hindi Indian languages please? What pray would be regional about tamil or Bengali or Marathi or Telegu that would not be regional about hindi? Arent there Hindi speaking regions in India...(as there are non hindi speaking regions as well..). Cant we for gods sake start using the word ’’Indian Languages’’ for all of the languages we speak.